Surface covering material is typically comprised of a top wear surface and a bottom surface. Surface covering materials would include floor mats and runners. Such mats and runners may also be used as a surface-cushioning and shock-absorbing material.
One surface covering material particularly employed in barns and veterinary cages is known as Cow Cushion.RTM. (a trademark of the American Enka Company, Inc.) These floor mats are composed of a three-dimensional layer of a stiff, melt-spun extruded nylon filament fibrous material wherein the fibers form a three-dimensional, peak-and-valley structure. The material comprises a randomly disposed, non-woven layer and forms a highly irregular, discontinuous mass of very open filaments melt-bonded at the filament intersections. The mat has a solid vinyl plastisol surface which may have fibrous material, like a polyester fabric, thereon. The mats are employed in barns and in veterinary cages, the solid surface being the wear-resistant face surface stood upon by the animals and being spaced apart from the floor surface of the barn or veterinary cage by the nylon fibrous fibers in the lower section of the mat. Such mats are useful in that the surface of the barn or the veterinary cage may be washed down with water to remove animal feces and urine.
The three-dimensional nylon filament material is known as Enkamat.RTM. (a trademark of the American Enka Company, Inc.) and is also employed as a reinforcement, soil restraining and drainage mat (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,352 issued Feb. 18, 1975). Such mats are formed of filaments of melt-spun polymeric particularly thermoplastic synthetic fiber, randomly melt-bonded at the filament intersections to form a very open, typically over about 90%, three-dimensional structure which has a peak-and-valley structure. The mats generally have a filament diameter of 0.1 mm to 1.5 mm for a pliable, resilient, crush-resistant fibrous mat structure. These mats and the process of producing such mats are described in U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,691,004, 3,687,759, 4,252,590 and 4,342,807, all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
It is desirable to provide a resilient, wear-resistant foraminous surface covering material which provides for a wear-resistant top and providing a bottom gripping surface which is open in nature to permit the drainage of liquid therethrough either for cleaning purposes or for melting of snow where a surface material is employed as a floor mat or runner.